


Sweet Little Lies

by ketchup



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Bakery and Coffee Shop, Co-workers, Depression, Dubious Morality, Emotional Constipation, Food Metaphors, Teen Angst, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-24
Updated: 2015-08-24
Packaged: 2018-04-16 23:10:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4643511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ketchup/pseuds/ketchup
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Business as usual?” Steven tried to mask his hopeful tone by resting an elbow on the counter and batting his lashes up at Sadie, but he still sounded like a glazed ham. </p><p>Sadie smiled. “Of course!”</p><p>Lars grunted. “Yep.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sweet Little Lies

**Author's Note:**

> This is a submission for the August Larsadie Ficlet Challenge over at http://ficletaweekpc.tumblr.com/
> 
> The prompt was: "Write about the first time Lars and Sadie had to work together at the Big Donut after the events shown in Island Adventure."
> 
> Cue the angst.

Everyone has a routine. Whether it’s getting up at sunrise or sunset, delivering mail or dancing on tables, routine is part of how humans survive, and how society is maintained.

Lars probably didn’t seem like he had a routine or, if he did, it was probably as simple as:

Wake up. Survive. Repeat.

Of course, he alternated between being late for work and leaving early, sometimes doing both in the same day. During a shift, there was always at least one task he would completely ignore. Always. He took his lunch break early and at least two fifteen minute breaks. In between customers, he’d sit on the floor behind the counter and read comic books or play games on his phone. If he was working with Sadie, he knew it was safe to arrive late, and once he saw her get her jacket from the break room, he knew it was time to go, even if the shift wasn’t over yet.

After their return from Mask Island, however, Lars’ routine changed. Scheduling at the Big Donut was flexible during the off season, so for the most part he only saw Sadie as he was coming in to take over for the night shift, or leaving as she came in for the afternoon. Seven whole days, and he was able to avoid talking to her.

Get up. Run. Get to work on time so Sadie wouldn’t get an automated email about his clock-in time. Stay anchored to the register during any rushes. Put on his headphones and go clean the store windows. All of them. Clean the pastry case, so he could eat the little crusty bits of frosting that always flaked off into the tray liners. Be ready to leave as soon as Sadie turned the corner and headed around to the entrance.

Then he’d always check his phone on the walk home:

_Hey, thanks for taking out the trash!_

Delete.

_See u tomorrow! Do u want me to come in early?_

Delete.

_Are u ok?_

Delete.

It was an enormous relief when he got texts from Buck, Sour Cream, or Jenny. He’d wait, count to sixty under his breath, and reply as casually as possible. It usually took a few tries, but eventually he got the hang of it.

_yeah thx ill meet u guys in a few_

_that sounds sick im down_

Things didn’t feel any better, but being out and cutting himself off from Sadie was at least better than having to deal with what happened. The best nights were the ones where Jenny got the Pizza car for a few hours, and the wind and the ocean and loud music could drown everything out.

Then came a holiday weekend. Lars didn’t even know what holiday it was, but when he looked at the schedule in the break room, he ground his teeth. A double shift, open to close, with Sadie. He wasn’t sure what would annoy him more: tourists or not being able to delete the words as they came out of Sadie’s mouth.

“Good morning!” Five in the morning, too early for even the local flying rats to be terrorizing the skies or screaming their heads off, and Sadie still managed to smile. She had two thermoses and offered him one.

“Mmm.” He took it, then stood back and leaned against the window while Sadie fumbled with her keys to open the door. He held his phone up, like he was looking at some important correspondence, but really he just thumbed his lock screen until he heard the lock turn.

“We’re going to be swamped today, so I made my coffee extra strong. Yours has tons of sugar and milk, though!” Her laugh was forced, so fake it made him roll his eyes, but Sadie pressed on like she didn’t notice. She went in, let Lars pass her, and locked the door behind them.

The sun wasn’t even up yet, and the lamp in front of the store had been burned out for months. It didn’t matter. Lars stepped around chairs and wet floor signs with ease, then slapped on all of the lights with one whack of his hand. They whined, hummed, snapped and popped, and the long tube light above the coolers would always flicker, so he didn’t even think about climbing a ladder to replace it again.

Lars headed to the break room and started wheeling boxes of donuts to the front hallway. They couldn’t keep extra donuts behind the counter, but he always bent that rule by keeping a stack or two of boxes where they would still be faster to reach during a rush of customers. By the time he opened the first boxes to stock the pastry case, Sadie had gotten the register ready, checked the napkin and paper bag supplies, and started all of the coffee and hot water pots.

“I’m going to fill a few of the travel carafes.” Sadie explained as she started measuring out coffee into filters and stacking them up. “Do you think I should do light or dark roast?”

With a grumble, Lars replied, “Nobody will care either way.” Lars always put a fancy Italian Roast sign on the pots of light coffee, and vice versa. He liked watching people smack their lips and comment on how they were sophisticated or whatever because they appreciated dark roast coffee.

Sadie laughed. “That’s true! I’ll just do whatever we have extra of.”

By the time the first few breakfast patrons arrived, Lars had taken up his position by the pastry cases and quick cook ovens. Sadie was friendlier and more careful with money, and his gangly limbs were useful for reaching all of the shelves and across counters with minimal effort. It was a good thing they had done massively busy days so many times before, because Lars didn’t even have to warn Sadie that he was taking orders down the line before Sadie rang customers up. He didn’t think he could manage a remotely civil tone if he’d had to deal with correcting her and a stuck up customer in one breath.

And there was no shortage of stuck up customers, all sorts of people from out of town who were used to way fancier coffee shops. Some of them seemed like the type that owned one of the beachfront condos or houses, and were indignant about how the Big Donut didn’t have an espresso machine.

Sadie’s smile looked like it hurt to plaster across her face each time she said, “We’re the Big Donut, not the Big Coffee Bean.” The customers would sigh, mutter about the indignity of it all, and order a regular coffee anyway. No tips, of course, and they always left the condiment counter a wreck when they put about a million sugar packets into their drink.

After the last customer of the morning rush, Lars huffed and raised his middle fingers to the retreating patron. He was furious, so frickin’ furious, at the way every single customer had wanted them to perform acrobatic feats of food service with a smile.

Sadie leaned her elbows on the counter and took a final sip from her thermos. “I wouldn’t mind it as much if they at least tipped,” she sighed. There wasn’t much time to lament their fortunes, however. Furious though he was, Lars grumbled and nodded in agreement as he kicked empty donut delivery boxes flat. He didn’t trust himself to use his Big Safety Big Box Cutter at the moment. If another customer had come in, it would have become a liability.

Ten thirty to eleven thirty: time to line up the lunch menu options. Lars let loose a series of loud mouth fart noises as he started making stacks of labeled cellophane bags. Just like the donuts and other breakfast options, nothing on the Big Donut’s lunch menu was truly prepared in store. Everything came packaged from corporate headquarters, and either went onto miserable looking buns or was crammed between two gooey donuts.

“One of these days, some wad is going to have a heart attack before they make it out the front door, and—“

“And you’re not cleaning it up,” Sadie nodded sympathetically. She’d been busy sweeping up the dine-in area, but Lars’ complaint was practically the store’s own cuckoo clock. It meant that she had fifteen minutes to finish getting ready for the lunch menu.

A few customers came and went in mini waves. Lars and Sadie took turns ringing them up as they cleaned and brewed coffee and checked napkin levels. When the line started picking up, Lars blew a raspberry and took a long swig from the thermos that Sadie had given him in the morning. Across from him, Sadie thumbed at the edge of the stack of paper bags nervously. They definitely had enough, but she always worried anyway.

The line crawled endlessly for hours. At times there were parents who seemed to have collected every child from their block, and all of them wanted different kinds of ice pops or pastries. The first few who asked for Slurpees had to deal with Lars’ sarcasm.

“Hey, would you like a Whopper and fries with that? How about a balloon animal? I’ll even do your math homework! Come on down to the Big Donut, folks. We have everything, even the actual frickin’ moon. I climbed a ladder and got it, just for you!” The kids would all tangle up their eyebrows in confusion, and their adult handlers would tut at Lars’ attitude. By the fifth hour of being asked the same questions, though, the derision had faded into surrender, and it seemed like the lunch rush was becoming a dinner and after dinner donut rush.

“This is ridiculous.” Lars whined directly to a customer’s face as he handed them a bag filled with pastries. The customer faltered, stared at Lars, then scampered away in a rush when he scowled at them.

Sadie exhaled through her nose, too fatigued to even laugh.

Eventually, though, the sun began to set and the line started dying down. There would be some fireworks on the beach in the evening, a fact that Sadie passed on to each customer. “It can be hard to get good seats, so if you want the best view, you should go now! Tell your friends!”

The front door chimed one final time, then swung shut and left the Big Donut silent save for the whirring of coolers and humming of fluorescent lights.

“Whew,” Sadie sighed happily and swept some crumbs off the counter into her palm. “I’m glad that worked.”

“Yeah. You’re a real natural at manipulating people.”

Lars’ sneaker squeaked on the tiled floor as he turned to start shuffling around the donut inventory. He expected a jittery laugh, an exasperated sigh, or to get a donut hole bounced off the back of his head. That was the routine. Teasing. Banter. Any jab and laugh to make the time pass. He moved all of the remaining donuts into one box, and broke down all of the empties. It would be a short trip down the hall to dump them all, and then—

“I asked if you were okay, Lars.” There was a nasally edge to Sadie’s voice, so he didn’t turn around. Not even when she sniffled. He folded the stack of empty boxes and stomped on them to keep them together.

“I know I made a mistake, and it was selfish of me.” Sadie gasped a little when Lars didn’t reply and instead headed to the back hallway with the boxes. By the time he returned, she had grabbed a few napkins and was facing the register. Lars leaned against the wall and turned to stare out the front windows. Through the glass, he could still hear the droning of the crowds of tourists, and the occasional seagull.

Sadie gave herself a few moments to dab at her face and blow her nose. Then she tried again. “You can’t keep ignoring what happened between us.”

“You mean what you set up. What you lied to get us to do.”

“Lars!” Sadie stomped one foot, but he only responded with a flick of his eyes in her direction. “I said that I know that I made a mistake! I’m sorry, but you know, you lie all the time! You lie and you weasel and you find ways to make life go smooth for yourself. It’s so hypocritical of you to be mad at me for doing that once.”

Lars let the moment hang there, gave her a chance to try to understand why what she'd done had hurt so much. He crossed his arms and sighed.

“You’re right. I shouldn’t be mad about you telling one lie.” He unfolded his arms and went to refill the donut display one last time for the night. As usual, he took his time, even though the pace did nothing to help the tidiness of his arrangement of pastries. Before he shut the door, he picked up some frosting crumbs from the bottom of the case and nibbled on them.

He knew Sadie was watching. She always stared at him when he did that. In the beginning, he thought she’d flip out about food service hygiene, just like she did for every other rule that he broke or twisted to get his way. For some reason, it never happened. This time, Lars’ gaze shifted to observe how she pretended not to gawk as he licked his fingertips clean.

He knew he should be mad at her. She’d lied. She’d put him in danger by stranding them on an island full of…who the hell knows what. Monsters of some kind. Lars wondered if her compliment about how he’d cooked the fish was a lie, too. Then he thought about all the stupid crap that he’d said and done over the years, to get someone’s approval or attention, and his guts hit the floor.

He frowned and looked away as he lowered his thumb from his mouth.

Even if Sadie had exaggerated about his cooking skills, her lies would always be sweeter than any of the ones he told.

The last hour of the shift was calmer, or at least Sadie had washed her face in the restroom and her eyes were less puffy. Plus, Lars even had time in between customers to lean against walls, or check his phone, or fuss with his hair. When Steven stopped in to get some donuts for himself and his dad, he smiled, because Sadie greeted him right away and Lars was flopped across the counter.

“Business as usual?” Steven tried to mask his hopeful tone by resting an elbow on the counter and looking up at Sadie, but he still sounded like a glazed ham.

Sadie smiled. “Of course!”

Lars grunted. “Yep.”

Steven beamed and grabbed the bag of donuts. “That’s good! I’m glad! Because, you know, after what happened—“

“Hey,” Sadie interjected. “Did you know there are fireworks tonight?”

The news nearly made Steven drop his greasy paper bag in shock. He grinned up at Sadie and threw his hands in the air. “Whaaaaat! But it’s not even New Years!”

“Yep. I think they’re starting soon. You should go find a good spot to see them with your dad.”

“Ohhhhh my gosh, thanks, Sadie! Stay chill, Lars!” Steven’s flip flops slapped against the tiled floor, applause for his thrilled exit.

Closing time arrived. Lars took the trash to the dumpster, Sadie did the final sweep of the store, and by the time she grabbed her jacket from the break room, Lars was already waiting by the exit for her.


End file.
